Aging
by Jimmy the Gothic Egg
Summary: Some things get better with age, and some things just don't go away.


_Aging_

She thinks, when she was really just a little girl, even if she wouldn't admit it at the time, it had started as a simple crush. Because, really, she was still struggling. With this whole life thing. With having one. And friends. And he was just there. And it worked. And even if he had girls flocking to him, they always seemed to just go away. She didn't know what happened between him and this girl or him and that girl or even care when this girl turned out not so great, and she had liked Suki, truly, but when it came down to it they were just two teenagers who actually had a relationship.

But this whole growing up thing. It changed perspective. She was no longer a little girl but a woman. The whole "Greatest Earthbender Ever" thing hadn't changed (because it was true, and try and deny it, let's see what happens), and she didn't turn into Katara (as she'd feared, but Katara wasn't just boy-crazy, she was crazy-crazy), but she had changed. They all had. She just hadn't grown out of her slight affection for Ponytail.

It was a simple matter of approaching him, of course, and she could do that. Totally. Sure. Yeah. Maybe later. Not right now. Look a rock! Maybe I'll go mess around with Twinkle Toes instead, teach him that whole metal-bending trick, 'cause you know he's the Avatar, right? Gotta keep teaching him stuff.

Other guys they'd met she'd kind of liked too. There was that whole "Let's stop the Fire Nation, argh!" thing going on. It was important. They made friends. They did stuff together. Activities, as a certain someone she was totally not crushing on would say. But, maybe it was the childhood fantasies, they all kind of paled away into obscurity.

Then the world was saved and more stuff happened. The evil backstabbing bastard (as Katara liked to call him, but she was Katara after all) had actually turned out to have a little bit of good in him. Apparently Aang had to make sure that good didn't turn back to evil backstabbing bastard again, and she was pretty sure Katara just had a crush on him.

She wanted to go home.

It was nice, this whole freedom thing. This whole I-don't-have-to-bathe-today-and-I-am-not-wearing-a-dress-anymore-and-oh-noes-I'm-wearing-no-shoes thing. But she missed her family. Her dad and her mom. But there was easy way to travel back without Appa, and Aang _had_ to stay, because, you know, he's the Avatar, and spirits forbid a cat gets stuck in a tree and he's not around to save it!

"Hey, Toph," he's said. "Why don't you travel with Sokka?"

Oh, I don't know, maybe because now we're all grown up. Because she was Toph and he was Sokka and that was an awfully strange mix, but she kind of liked it.

So they traveled. It took weeks and months, there was fighting, they made up, Sokka got drunk (and probably laid, but she didn't think about that), and some cities hadn't heard the war was over, and some soldiers hadn't heard the war was over, even if it had been a few years since the war had been over, and okay, let's settle this with words before I shove this boulder up your ass, and no, it's not okay to light things on fire, and Sokka, stop eating weird things because I don't know anything about what plants are poisonous and it won't be like I can help you, and Toph, shut up.

They reached her hometown, and she just stood around for a little while. Sokka was still by her side. He said he would be for a little while longer, and she appreciated it, really. Even when she said she didn't need him, for a little while longer she just might.

But still, it meant he would have to leave.

"You can't just travel alone," she said forcefully.

"It's okay. I'll be fine."

No you won't, she thought, and not just because some pretty girl could swoon at your presence and you'd fall madly in love and have babies, but what if something happens and you can't save yourself, and it doesn't matter if you're fully capable without bending abilities, you're also an idiot.

But she didn't say that. Instead she turned to face her home and said something that no one should hear her say.

"I'm scared."

"Why?"

Because it's been years and my parents are probably going to kill me. I'm never going to see the outside again. I'm never going to see my friends. Or you. And that scares me.

Instead she said, "It's been too long."

He just nodded and pushed her along. "I'll be right there. Trust me, it won't be bad."

And she stared at him for a little while because Sokka was awfully used to being a big brother, but he wasn't being a big brother right now. And after a few years of this whole crush business Toph stared him in the eye and kissed him. He was surprised. She pulled away.

"Why'd you do that?"

She shrugged. "Apparently I'm being brave today."

And Sokka, who'd never really given much time for his crushes to be anything more than a teenage romance, thought for a moment how nice that felt, and how long she'd been hiding it.

**Notes:**

I had to end it somewhere.

Sorry if it seems kind of random. It's one in the morning and I found this community dedicated to Toph and Sokka and my thoughts are kind of spastic right now.


End file.
